North Carolina lawmaker proposes gun ban for people on terror watch list

Democratic state Senator Jay Chaudhuri held a news conference at the legislative building in Raleigh Thursday calling on the North Carolina state Senate to introduce and support legislation preventing individuals on the FBI Terrorist Watch List from purchasing firearms in the state.

"The ask is simple," Sen. Chaudhuri (14th District) said. "The ask is to say that we want to prevent terrorists from gaining access to firearms and not responsible gun owners."

He and seven other Democratic senators signed a letter with that request and delivered it to Senate Leader Phil Berger. It asks for swift gun reform measures given the mass shooting in Orlando. The Orlando gunman was on the Terrorist watch list from 2013 to 2014.

Senator Berger told ABC11 everyone wants to prevent that type of tragedy from happening again. But he said they need to see a specific proposal.

"We don't have enough detail to know what they're talking about other than they're saying they want something done," Senator Berger (26th District) said. "So tell us what it is, specifically, you want done. Tell us how it would work and then we'd be more than happy to look at it. Do we have information on who's on that list? Do we know how folks get on that list? Is there some way to get off the list and what's the procedure involved? I mean we're talking about folks' Constitutional right."

"I don't think there's an avenue for us as Democrats to introduce legislation," Senator Chaudhuri said.